Network security and the protection of sensitive information stored on networked databases is an ongoing area of study and development. Typically, network security is provided by methods that include firewalls and proxy servers. These methods are limited in the fact that they rely on the use of standard networking protocols and software stacks for communicating with a public network. The standardized nature of these communication protocols implies that the systems that use these protocols are vulnerable to attacks via the public network using methods such as SQL injection. In order to work around this vulnerability, the next evolutionary step in the area of network security is to introduce an additional layer of security over the existing network communication protocols.
Vehicle connectivity is a technology that allows one or more systems of a vehicle to connect to one or more external devices or networks. This feature presents a vehicle as a node or a computing system in a public or private computer network, and increases the vulnerability of vehicles to external attacks such as hacking. Current research in the area of vehicle connectivity and vehicle networking has shown that a connected vehicle can be successfully hijacked and controlled remotely. This vulnerability can cause grave danger to life and property, and current ongoing research is focused on making the connected vehicle more secure.